02:34.1S 94:44.7W Towards the Marquesas
Meryon.bridges
Thu 8 Apr 2010 23:27
|
Nick duly arrived at lunchtime on Easter Sunday,
the rest of the party having attended a very colourful roman Catholic church
service to celebrate the feastday. He had never seen Ares
before and thought the boat was terrific and a huge improvement on previous
Munro yachts. We went to bed earely in order to get up at 4am to go on our day
tour to Isla San Bartholeme ....one hour by coach on the and then 3
hours by boat. Five minutes out of town when dawn was begining
to break the driver hit a high curb and the front axle was damaged, the tyre
blown and 20 of us waited for a replacement bus. This duly came and we
drove to the north side of Santa Cruz Is. where we boarded the good
ship Espanolaand at the chgot to know several of our fellow
passengers. By mid morning we had arrived in the channel
between San Salvador and St Bartholeme, with fabulous fabulous volcanic scenery
on both sides. Most of this was fairly stark but there were
striking rock formations and patterns created by old lava flows A wooden
decked path had been built to the high point on the island and we climbed to the
top for the views....fabulous! We then went for a swim and snorkelling off
one of the sand beaches....interestingly of a yellow sand. Here we saw
sealions, a pelican nesting, a Galapagos Penguin, and lots of red
crabs. All very welcome except for the wretched sand flies that had an
extemely unpleasant bite. Back to the Espanola for a surprisingly
good hot lunch...then our 3 hour return journey, the highlight of which was the
company of 2 frigate birds that flew almost within touching distance of us on
the deck. Their complete lack of fear suggested they put on this display
every day for the tourists...it made one think of the Alfred Hitchcock
film The Birds.
We departed Porto Ayora at 10.30 on Tuesday 6
April for our trans Pacific voyage to the Marquesas. With a gentle wind
over the stern quarter the assymetric was rigged and this gave us
an extra 1.5 knots By
evening there were some light squalls and for a mysterious...at the
moment...reason, the halyard failed and the assymetric had to be recovered from
the ocean Since then the sailing has been comfortable. Today
Thursday 8 April we appear to have found the trade winds, blue skies and
low clouds and the most enjoyable sailing at a steady speed and lovely
temperature. Altogether a great start to this sector of the
trip
|